Over the last year I’ve immensely enjoyed Dread delusion and lunacid. Both of these are deliberately emulating a style of game from my childhood, however they include the playability of modern games: UI smoothness, rebinds, graphics options, modern tutorial design and so on.
I have found these very engrossing games but they are also relaxing mentally. They’re not very difficult (although lunacid is punishing of failure it’s easy to execute) and the gameplay is simple and obvious. The delight comes in the aesthetic polish drawing me in to mysterious alien worlds.
When I think of simple and very playable games, the sort you don’t have to consult a wiki on or invest ages learning, mostly what comes to mind are the modern trend of roguelite arcadey games which tend to be very difficult and very exciting.
If you’re after something different I’d wholeheartedly recommend these two and I’d also like to beg for anyone’s recommendations for simple/playable exploration centric games while I’m at it.
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Why the hell didn’t I already know about Dread Delusion? This looks fucking awesome
It’s so good. Not flawless or anything near it but the world is intriguing, the quests are well written, and a few of the moral conundrums really made me think.
My only substantial criticism is that certain elements of the game can easily be postponed to the point that the end game becomes tedious rather than a satisfying conclusion.
If you enjoy China Melville’s writing you’ll fucking love the setting though. Peak weird fiction
I ain’t gonna read the last two sentences of your comment because I like to go into stuff based as much on vibes as possible, but thank you for bringing this game to my attention. Lunacid looks awesome too, and I’ve been craving games like these. Gonna check’em both out!
I hope you have fun. As a computer toucher bringing attention to the works of others brings me significant joy.
Legend of Grimrock scratched an RPG itch for me like 10 years ago. One of my favorites.
I like backed that game or some shit back in the day. Consequently it breaks my heart for some reason? Something about the style makes me long for being a kid again in a painful rather than wistful way.
Devil Spire is a bit like Dread Delusion and Lunacid. Dragon Ruins II is sorta like them but with the complexity dialed back even more.
Dragon Ruins II
Dragon Ruins II Developer Graverobber Foundation Publisher Graverobber Foundation Released 17 Jan, 2025 A dungeon crawler for tired people.
Zomg, it me
I bought Lunacid and from what I understand it’s a bit like King’s Field. Another that’s really similar is Fly Knight
Fly knight looks like entirely the sort of soulful jank that is my jam.
Virtual Hydlide, though you need to look up the mechanics/tips briefly before playing. It’s otherwise a pretty straight-forward fantasy RPG with OK exploration. King’s Field/Shadow Tower games too, though maybe just the PS1 games. Not sure if the later ones get complicated.
I remember the DS/PSP had a bunch of straight-forward 3D dungeon crawler games like Dungeon Siege, although maybe they had complicated loot 'n grind systems I’m unaware of, but that era of handheld RPGs seems prime for exploration-based RPGs without stupid amount of mechanics. Maybe the portable Phantasy Star games too on DS/PSP, etc. 3DS too, probably, with like Ever Oasis and stuff. Actually, probably Wii too with stuff like Fragile Dreams, Final Fantasy Fables, Rune Factory, Opoona, etc.
Also maybe fantasy FPS/RPG-FPS games like Hexen, Heretic, etc. They’re pretty straightfoward and pretty fun with okay-ish worlds to explore.
Have you played Tunic?
Tunic is like the opposite of simple. that had me doing letter frequency analysis and red string corkboard shit
I don’t think we played the same Tunic.
I translated the manual…
" I added comments to the game’s code, but only the controls, therefor Skyrim is overly-complicated"
Huh? Most of tunic is translating the manual and figuring out what it means. The ending is literally behind figuring out what the golden cross is and the story is only explained in the enciphered manual text.
I think one of the major puzzles literally requires deciphering some of the text too.
I don’t understand you confusion, the game isn’t shy about it being a puzzle game. One of the earliest things you come across is a golden door.
Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles is like a 3D Zelda game, but if you removed the combat elements and just focused on exploration, quests, and unraveling the story.
